The Ministry of Economy released dates on the start of verification of the labeling for prepackaged food and non-alcoholic beverages in Mexico.
The announcement was made through the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF) on Friday.
This is the Agreement by which the Criteria for the implementation, verification and surveillance are established, as well as for the evaluation of the conformity of the Modification to the Official Mexican Standard NOM-051-SCFI / SSA1-2010, General labeling specifications for prepackaged food and non-alcoholic beverages-Commercial and health information, published on March 27, 2020.
According to the publication, the Ministry of the Economy, the Ministry of Health, the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks and the Federal Consumer Protection Agency are the competent entities that may carry out the verification and surveillance (the Authorities) of the Rule.
The Authorities, in accordance with the provisions of the First Transitory of the Modification, will verify from October 1, 2020, that the labels of the prepackaged products subject to the Modification and intended for the final consumer, of national or foreign manufacture and marketed in national territory, have included in their labels or through adhesives or decals adherent to them (until March 31, 2021), the warning front labeling established in the General Health Law and in accordance with the frontal labeling system established in the modification.
Food labeling
Likewise, the Authorities will consider that there is no infringement, when the labels of the prepackaged products have the commercial and health information included in the Modification, prior to October 1, 2020, as well as each of the implementation phases established in its Transients, provided they comply exactly with the provisions of the Modification.
The Authorities will also verify as of April 1, 2021, that the prepackaged products subject to the Modification and intended for the final consumer, of national or foreign manufacture and marketed in national territory, have definitively included on their labels the commercial information and health provided for in the Modification.
The Authorities will consider that there is no infraction, when the importers make use of adhesives or sticky decals on the origin labels of the imported products, provided that they comply exactly with all the elements of commercial and sanitary information foreseen in the Modification.
The Opinions are those issued by the Verification Units after carrying out an on-site verification visit at the request of the importer, as part of the conformity assessment described in the Conformity Assessment Procedure described in Chapter 9 of the Modification. (PEC) and may be called the Compliance Report (Opinion).
